What if Society Collapses

So, what's happening with the pandemic right now isn't what scares me the most. What really scares me is what might be coming.

Here's an example from the Tom Brown Jr. books. You can take it hypothetically - it's a relevant framework that I can use to put my thoughts into perspective.
Many decades ago, an Apache wise man said that the end of society would be signaled by three things.
The first sign was that there would be holes in the sky. And everyone was like, "that's ridiculous. How could there be holes in the sky?" But holes did appear in the sky - the holes in the ozone layer.
The second sign is that the stars will bleed. That doesn't even sound like a crazy suggestion. Because when we had those awful fires a year and a half ago, it cast weird orange glows on the sunlight. It makes sense that some kind of pollution in the air might make the stars look red.
If it happens that the stars bleed, then we have a year to get away from cities, and out into the wild.

Those bleeding stars may come in a couple years, according to Tom Brown Jr.
His books have affected me greatly. And I haven't even finished all of them yet. I've been wanting to to go one of his classes for years. I was suppose to go this summer, but the pandemic probably makes that impossible.
But this news almost makes me want to believe that he's crazy.
Of course I don't want to believe that society is ending. Although there are some parts of society that really need to be trashed. Like incompetent governments, screwy economics, prejudice, extremely wasteful consumption, etc. Our society is built on unsustainable platforms. And those have to change. If anything, I really hope that this pandemic makes society wake up to how screwed up it is. If we can come out better from all of this, that would be amazing. I keep trying to convince myself of that, so I don't fall apart. I don't know how likely it is, but if we don't learn from this, then we're probably screwed anyway.
Yeah, reforming society would be hard and painful. Big changes always are, even if they're necessary.
But if ALL of society is destroyed, we'd lose a lot more than that.
And the way things are now, it doesn't seem too outlandish that society could collapse.

So, what would I do if the stars bleed, and I have to flee to the wilderness?
Well, that's exactly the story I wrote for my grad program (without the bleeding stars). It's eerily relevant. But that story I wrote is extremely optimistic for a post-apocalyptic sort of thing. I knew that when I wrote it. That was the point. I want people to try to turn disaster into something better. But now that optimistic story of mine seems ridiculous compared to my present fears.

If I do like Ashlyn did and flee to the woods, I'm not too worried about staying alive. I think I could survive.
These are the things that I would be more worried about.

My friends and family.
Say the stars do bleed. We're all supposed to flee to the wilderness, right? What if society looks perfectly fine? How would I ever convince people to run away and live in the woods? It might work if things were already going to hell by the time the stars bleed. But also, say I took off, leaving everything behind. And then nothing bad actually happened. Would I give up an awesome job and everything? People would think I'd gone loco.
And even if I could bring my family and friends with me, could I take care of them? I think about the medications and such my dad has to take. How bad his teeth are. How could I take care of anything like that, with no doctors, dentists, medications?

I reread Fullmetal Alchemist when I was off work for quarantine. At the end of the series, they say they can't only save their friends and family. They have to save everyone.
Is there any way I could save more than just friends and family?

The next worry is animals. Could I take care of my cat and snake out in the wild? My cat can't hunt to save her life. I assume I could hunt to feed her. But what about my snake? He needs warmth and humidity and such to avoid getting sick.
And then beyond my two animals, what about the zoo animals? We have so many endangered and critically endangered species there. I would never want them to get abandoned. Plus I've gotten to know them all so well.
But it's ridiculous to think about taking them with me. The animals that know me the best - giraffes - that's just laughable. Imagine traveling across the state with five huge animals that bolt at anything? How long would they last without a warm barn to sleep in?
Even many of the smaller animals like the sifaka lemurs wouldn't make it. Sifakas have such specialized diets that I could never get the right foods to keep them alive.

And the last one is the most silly, but it's still something I think about.
I would be heartbroken to lose all of the silly useless, beautiful things. Essentially, art.
I've said it before, but there are two types of people that give me hope in the world. People that are out there doing amazing things, and artists.
Artists and art would be useless if society fell apart (for the most part, anyway).
And some art forms wouldn't even exist anymore. Movies and video games, for example.
I'd never get to watch Coco, or Princess Mononoke, or Star Wars.
I could never play Undertale or Legend of Zelda.
I could never listen to a full orchestra again. Never listen to soundtracks or Beatles songs or anything recorded.
I couldn't go out and get Japanese food or Italian food.

Tom Brown Jr. said that we should prepare for the worst, and count it as a blessing if this never happens.
So whether or not the bleeding stars ever happen, we still have so many things that we need to fix in our world. Everyone needs to take action.
At work, I talk to people about animals every day. At the very least, I can tell people amazing things about animals to help them fall in love. I also tell them about the threats the animals are facing.
But I keep feeling like I'm not doing enough. And since the zoo is pretty much closed to visitors, there's not even much I can talk to people about.

I'll keep writing.
But make plans in case things go to hell. And let's try to make things better.